November 01, 2004
Quake prediction difficult
What kind of world are we living in, where you can't even believe the threats of your local soccer team? As you may recall, anymore. Can't anybody here set a deadline? As you may recall, back in August the San Jose Earthquakes owners set a deadline of September 17 to decide whether to find a local owner or move the club to either Houston or San Antonio; then on September 17 they pushed that back to the end of October, to give local businessman Tony Amanpour more time to put together a purchase offer. So, here it is November. What did Quakes president Alexi Lalas have to say last Friday?
"Negotiations with regard to the sale of the Earthquakes continue with several interested parties, including Tony Amanpour. But, as of today, we have not entered into an agreement nor accepted deposits from any of these parties. Many of the parties involved have indicated a genuine interest in keeping the team in the Bay Area. As these discussions are ongoing and positive in nature, plans for the 2005 season will be announced at a later date."
Back in August, Lalas had responded to criticism that the team was just setting arbitrary deadlines to try to shake loose $50 million in local stadium funding: "If we've been at fault for anything, it's for not adequately expressing our urgency." Keep working on that, Alexi.
